District 1010 - Scotland

25th June, 2010 - New President Charles Evans and Vice President Gordon Hay were installed after President Bill Duncan made his Valedictory address to the Club. Bill had a most successfull year as President and said that he was surprised as to how quickly it had passed. Full Report to Follow.

17th June, 2010 - The Rotary Club of Perth's annual essay writing competition for the Neil McCorkindale Trophy, was won this year by Fran Brine of Perth Academy, she is surrounded by other entrants from the Academy, Perth High and Perth Grammar, all of whom produced work of a very high quality, they are Jasmin Watt and Kirsty Butt of Perth High; Sam Richardson, Hannah Walton and Caitlin Murray of Perth Grammar; Fran Brine and Catriona Lawson of Perth Academy. The trophy was presented by Rotary President Bill Duncan who is pictured here along with Willie Coupar who organised the competition. Fran's complete essay will be published on our website ASAP.

10th June, 2010 -  Fiona Bartley-Jones, Tayside co-ordinator for the charity Action for Sick Children, told the Club of the origins of the Charity as an advocate for families whose children were hospitalised and whose emotional and practical needs the Hospital Authorities of the time were largely ignorant and substantially ignored.

Fiona concentrated most of her talk on an aspect of her work taking up a substantial amount of her time over the past while, namely teenage mothers in the Tayside area. Most of us were aware of the high level of teenage pregnancies in the Tayside area but were nevertheless shocked when Fiona described the age profile of these girls and that those under sixteen receive no direct state funding.

When she challenged Club Members to put forward reasons why these girls became pregnant Members came up with the normal responses of lack of education, peer pressure, lack of parental guidance and example, possibility of housing and more. Fiona shocked many of us when she explained the level of detachment from the Educational system  leading to a high level of illiteracy, making understanding even basic written instructions impossible in this group, the repeated generational patterns, but even more so the pressure from the boy friends for the girls to have babies as a mark of their virility. The chilling picture of a teenage boy with a Staffordshire bull terrier on a lead proudly wheeling a push chair with his baby in it is one that will remain with us for some time.

Fiona’s message was not totally bleak and her enthusiasm and optimism that her organisation’s carrot and stick approach was making some difference was the positive way with which she ended a very impressive talk. Action for Sick Children have produced a DVD fronted by Lorraine Kelly showing the way the Tayside region of the Organisation use these girls to mutually educate and support each other but due to technical difficulties we were unable to view the film, however Fiona more than made up for that with her excellent presentation.

• Our thanks as usual go to Willie Deans for his sponsorship and encouragement as well as for judging the Final itself.

Thursday 3rd June, 2010 - Ken Drummond was awarded this year's Jimmie Cairncross Award from President Bill for his lifetimes work with Letham Football Club. Ken was a founder member and is still running the club more than 40 years later, Letham FC have over 300 players with teams in all the age groups from 9 year of age. Letham were presented with the Community Club of the Year Award this year by the SFA, quite an accolade.